Australian Retailers Lag
in Cross Channel Retail Study
144 Retailers from 17 countries across four major retail
categories benchmarked to find the worlds cross channel champions.
The
2012 Global Cross Channel Retailing Report, released today, has revealed
Australia lags significantly in its ability to implement effective cross
channel retail strategies.
When
it comes to making it easy for consumers to shop both online and in physical
stores, the retailers that do it best are in the categories of general merchandise
and consumer electronics and based in the United States and the United
Kingdom. Scoring third last out of 17 countries with only the Chinese and
Turkish champions behind, Australia’s cross channel champion was named as Dick
Smith with Walmart being named as global champion.
“Despite the fast growing
cross
channel trend and retailers’ intent to deliver a well-integrated online and
store shopper experience, the study shows overall that most retailers are
immature in their ability to exploit this opportunity”, commented Brian Walker,
Managing Director of Retail Doctor Group. “We have found a correlation between
the advancement of retailers’ ecommerce capabilities and
cross channel
capabilities, largely determining why some retailers are more successful than
others. This is particularly the case in the results we are seeing for
Australia, and why the USA and UK are so far ahead of their countries in these
research results. Australia was an early adopter in the
dot.com boom, but
many retailers had their fingers burnt and have been cautious on the uptake to
implement ecommerce strategies again.”
The
2012 Global Cross Channel Retailing Report was
conducted and released by Retail Doctor Group in conjunction with Ebeltoft
Group - a worldwide alliance of leading retail expert consulting companies of
which Retail Doctor Group is the Australian member. Defining
cross-channel retailing as an operation that
drives sales, customer communications, and the availability of products across
multiple selling
channels such as web sites, stores, catalogues,
mobile commerce and
social media; the report compares the level of
cross-
channel capabilities of 144 leading retailers, across 17 countries and am
ong four retail categories: general merchandise, consumer
electronics, home improvement/DIY and specialty fashion.
The study uses a 47 Point Indicator Retailer Cross Channel
Framework organised into five core areas, that rates the performance of
retailers in each category for their offering in each of these five areas:
consistency of shopping services across channels; the ability of shoppers to
research online and buy offline; the ability to purchase online and pick up or
return items in a store; a “connected store” environment supported by digital
shopping services; and the ability to serve customers across social, mobile and
local channels.
“Research shows that cross channel
customers are up to four times more valuable than single channel customers.
Walmart has been fast in recognising this value and they have embraced it by
offering a thousand details that connect customers across the channels,
offering a seamless service and experience that makes them the global
frontrunner. The beauty of this study is that we now have a systematic
approach based on five core cross channel indicators, we can use for Australian
retailers to benchmark their capabilities, strengths and weaknesses and then
help close these gaps operationally,” concluded Walker.
In addition to Australia, the other
16 countries in the study are the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil,
Canada, Chile,
China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy,
Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey.
A full copy of the global findings
is available to retailers through Retail Doctor Group.
